In everyday life, there are many tasks that people need to perform. At times, people have so many tasks to perform that they cannot easily remember to perform all of them. To remind themselves of their tasks, people create systems of reminders. For example, people can create paper or electronic task lists, post sticky notes around their offices and homes, make notes on paper or electronic calendars or planners, set reminder flags on emails, or make other types of reminders.
Even with such reminder systems, people still find it difficult to remember all of the tasks that they need to perform. Consequently, people need reminders of the tasks that they need to perform. Many electronic calendaring and task management systems provide such reminders. For example, an electronic calendaring system can display a popup window on a person's computer fifteen minutes before the person is to attend a meeting.
However, there are many situations where people do not benefit from such electronic task reminders. Indiscriminate use of task reminders can annoy people or lead people to ignore the task reminders. For example, it may be pointless to remind a person of a task that the person cannot perform. For instance, it may be pointless or annoying to remind a person to pick up milk when the person is in a business meeting or phone call. In another instance, it may be pointless to remind a person to call a co-worker when the co-worker is unavailable to take phone calls. In another example, it may be pointless to remind a person of tasks that can be performed at a significantly later time. For instance, it may be pointless to remind a person to pick up the person's dry cleaning next week.